Miami Dolphins Got Gifted A BIG-TIME Move They Need To Make!

Miami Dolphins Got Gifted A BIG-TIME Move They Need To Make!

[Music] It might as well be Christmas, Miami Dolphins fans, because this organization just received an absolute gift from the Seattle Seahawks, and they need to take advantage. I am Nick Rolloff. This is Dolphin Today by Chat Sports. You might ask, what is this gift in the middle of July? Well, it’s the fact that Seattle right before training camp released tight end Noah Fan. Now, it is a fully motivated deal due to financial aspect that he was due $8.5 million, but it was non-g guaranteed. The guaranteed date was today. So, they released him so they could save the $8.5 million in cap space. They drafted Elijah Royo from Miami in the second round of the NFL draft and felt like they were fine with them moving forward at that tight end position. But with Miami having a very weak tight end room, Noah Fant becoming a free agent, he becomes instantly the top one on the market and the Fins, specifically Chris Greer, need to be all over this. Getting Noah Fant into the Miami Dolphins building before training camp or in the first week of training camp this week would be an absolute perfect move to get things springboarded into training camp and into the preseason before the regular season kicks off in September. And before we break down Noah Fant more as a player and why I think Miami should sign him, hit that sub button because we cover the Dolphins every single day. If a moves happens, we will have you covered. We are 77 subscribers away from 71K. What a milestone that would be. Help us out. Join the channel and subscribe to the Dolphins today here by Chat Sports. Now, I have been very open about ever since the Dolphins traded John Smith, a part of that Jaylen Ramsey trade to the Steelers that the two biggest things Miami should have done before training camp got underway is add another tight end and add to the quarterback room. Well, they obviously traded with the Giants to get Darren Waller just 24 hours after trading away Jonnu Smith, but I still don’t feel that confident about where this tight end room stands right now. Like, I just don’t really see a way where you can feel good with what you have right now. Yeah. I mean, just seriously, like Julian Hill is nothing. Pharaoh Brown is a very average tight end three and Darren Waller did not play football last season. Like you can’t seriously expect this room to be average or above average during the 2025 season. And this is not me saying that I think Darren Waller is going to be bad for Miami, but I just don’t think you can reasonably expect him to provide you with that much production. And I think it’s more of just the principle that you are bringing a player that is on the plus side of 30 to your roster who did not play football last season. He is a full year removed. Some people might say that, well, he’s going to be fresh. He’s got fresh legs, a good clean perspective. Maybe that will be the case. I hope it will be, but he didn’t play football last season. His cap number is only 2-0. There is not even a guarantee he’s on the 53man roster if things go south here over the next month and a half. So, to me, grabbing a sure thing in Noah Fant would make a lot of sense. So, let’s talk about the new free agent tight end here. Fant was a first round pick in 2019, 20th overall selection out of Iowa. That tight end U just continues to push out first round tight ends. He was one of the main pieces in the Russell Wilson trade alongside draft capital. Noah Fant was the best player that went to Denver or went to Seattle in that trade. And to my surprise, Noah Fant’s only 27. He’s been in the league for a while, but uh yeah, he’s still relatively young. He’s still got two or three seasons till he gets to that age 30 year where Janu Smith who Miami just traded away is already at. And no offense not like this all pro all Pro Bowl caliber tight end. I’m not going to try to say that. But he has had some good seasons in the past. Obviously his best season was that year prior to being traded to Seattle when he put up a career-high 670 yards and 68 receptions for the Denver Broncos. then had an up and down three seasons. But I don’t really blame them that much because when you think of that Seattle Seahawks offense, they have really honed in on their tight ends with Jackson Smith and Jigba, DK Metaf, Tyler Lockett at the time. So Fant as that fourth option in tight end really wasn’t getting featured as much as you would probably imagine with someone that holds the talent he does on that Seahawks team. And just like John Smith, I could see Noah Fant coming to the Miami Dolphins and having a career year in this Dolphin scheme. Noah Fant has a very similar skill set in my opinion to Janu Smith in terms of his size, agility, and athletic movements and ability to dominate over the middle of the field just like Janu did last season. So although Janu’s season in 2024 is better than anything Noah Fant has ever done, I do think that Noah would be able to be unlocked a little bit in this Miami Dolphin system. And it makes me very intrigued by adding him and I hope Chris Greer takes a very hard look at potentially signing the former first round pick. And before we break down Fant even more in depth, pin comment on today’s show. Take Chris Greer’s job. Should Miami sign the tight end Noah Fant? Type Y for yes or type N for no. I do believe Noah Fant is the perfect John Smith replacement. When you think of what made John Smith so excellent for the Fins last year, what was it? Well, was the fact that he didn’t really miss any games. He had such an ability to make people miss, forced 13 missed tackles last season, and his ability to just make plays over the middle of the field. Well, when you look at Noah Fant, he is able to do the same thing. He’s 6’4, 250, athletic, really good catch radius over the middle of the field. It just seems like it would be a seamless transition for Noah to just take that John Smith role in this Dolphins offense. And I know a lot of people are going to ask the question, well, can Noah block? Because that’s something that is required out of a Miami Dolphins tight end. I would not say that he is that good of a blocking tight end. I’m not going to sugarcoat that. But here’s the thing, too. John Smith is not a good blocking tight end, either. You look at the last season and look at the um blocking numbers via PFF from Fate and Janu, they’re both bad, but Noah was slightly better in run blocking. The grade was just barely better. He was a better zone run blocker, a better gap blocker, and was not penalized at all while blocking in the run game either, which is good for me. That is out of the 80 qualified tight ends that played 20% of the blocking snaps. That was the max. So, no, Noah is not good, but it’s not like Janu is any better. Like, and when you’re trying to compare the two and how Noah would replace Janu in Miami and you talk about blocking, you would be splitting hairs. It’s not something that I’m going to focus on that much because even if the Dolphins did sign Noah Fant, you would have to imagine they are going to still keep one of Julian Hill or Farah Brown who would then be your primary blocking tight end, but Noah is the receiver that Janu could be. And I want to look at some advanced metrics from last season, not just standard catches. I want to look at deep into the numbers because we talk about how Janu Smith is one of the best yak tight ends in the entire NFL. Well, if you go to one season ago, both Janu and Noah Fant average 5.9 yards after the catch on each reception, that ranked ninth in the NFL amongst qualified tight ends. Noah Fant only had a 4% drop percentage. that is.3 less than Janu Smith. You do see the missed tackles forced in the QB rating favor Janu. But Fant was able to make some plays in contested catch abilities as well, although not happening a lot. Went three for four in his contested catch opportunities. But the part I want to focus on is the yak after reception and the drop percentage. And when you think of John Smith, last season was the best year of his career. You look at the raw numbers from Noah Fant. You look at the advanced numbers for Noah Fant. I’m not going to say this is the best year in Noah Fant’s career. I would say it’s very average. So the fact that you could look at Noah’s 2024 campaign, say ah it’s just average and then look at John News and say well that’s the best season of his career and John Smith’s number is just maybe slightly better than Noah Fance. I feel pretty good that Fant would be able to come into this building and be a differencemaker from day one because of all of the capabilities that he has. More to come here in a second, but new sponsor here at Dolphins today that is Ethos. And in today’s day and age, anything is possible and you cannot take anything for granted. When you lose someone close to you, you can’t help but think about the future. With life insurance through Ethos, your family is protected. Life insurance is a perfect way to make sure you’re covered, can help pay the mortgage or your kids’ college tuition. And right now, you can get a free quote at ethos.com/n daily. Ethos is an online platform that makes getting life insurance fast and easy to protect your family’s future in minutes, not months. Life insurance is more affordable than you think. With Ethos, you can get a free quote and customize a rate that fits your budget. The process is 100% online with no medical exam required. Just answer a few health questions and get a quote in as little as 10 minutes. 3 million families have completed their applications and trusted ethos to help find the right coverage. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.comflaily. That is ethos.comflaily. Links in description and comments of today’s video. Another reason why I really like Noah Fant is his ability to work the middle of the field. I think this is something that is very crucial for tight ends. John Smith did an excellent job of it. But Noah Fant is also really good at working the intermediate part of the football field. And when you look at his target percentage, not reception percentage, his target percentage from last season, he was not used as a deep threat tight end. Only 3.2% 2% of his targets came 20 plus yards down the field. He did pretty much all of his work in the intermediate, 10 to 19 yards down the field, medium 17.7%, but between the line of scrimmage and the first down marker on a first and 10, third and 10, you guys know what we’re talking about. 67.7% of his targets came there. And when you look at his receiving chart from a year ago, look at how efficient he was between the line of scrimmage and 10 yards downfield over the middle of the football field. 17 of 20 targets were caught, only one drop, a QB rating when target of 106. How about the number just a little bit farther? Only three targets, but two catches for 32 yards, and a touchdown over the middle of the field between 20 10 and 20 yards. Like to me, when you just look at this chart, it just encapsulates what makes Noah Fant such a level or high level tight end in the National Football League. Like when you think of his numbers, his receiving chart, the takeaways I have is just he’s solid. He’s dependable. And I would take him on my roster any day. Is he going to be looked at as a top five, top 10 tight end in the NFL? Probably not. but he is going to be one of the most average or top half tight ends in the league who maybe could become a top 10 guy if he joins this Dolphin scheme. Another reason why I can’t get enough of Noah Faint and why I’d love to bring him in is he is durable, dependable. Like I just mentioned over the last three seasons, he’s just missed three games with Seattle and they all happened. Last season, he only played 14 games. In 2022 and 2023, he played in all 17 games. He is a guy that you can trust to be on the football field for you every single day. Now, there is an issue with potentially signing Noah Fant though. Miami, at least currently right now, as Barry Jackson tweeted out last night, only has $2.25 million in cap space. I’ve seen very conflicting numbers. The NFLPA says 2.25, which is where Barry got his number. You look at Spo and over the cap, it’s much more closer to 1.92 million. So, it’s unclear how much cap space Miami actually has. And when you think of the situation that Miami is in right now where they don’t have a legit cornerback on the outside, unless you really believe in Cam Smith or Storm Duck, which as you all know, I do not believe in them. How are you going to address cornerback and sign Noah Fant if you only have $2.25 million in space? That is a serious question that we have to ask. But coming up in here in a second, I have a couple moves that you can make that creates more cap space to potentially alleviate this issue. But since Miami is very limited in cap space, if you could only choose one position for Miami to make a move in, would it be cornerback or would it be tight end? Let me know your thoughts by typing TE or CB down in the comments. Now, I know this is not the right answer that I am asking you to give me, but I am saying you need to find a way to do both. Now, some people might say that, hey, the Dolphins aren’t really competing for a championship this year. Don’t exhaust future cap space and put yourself in a bind in the next couple of years to help add Noah Fan and let’s just say Asante Samuel Jr. right now. But I will make the argument that this front office and coaching staff needs to provide success and results. They have not won a playoff game in 25 years. If they miss the playoffs again, both these guys, Greer and McDaniel, will probably not be in the position they are currently in this time next year. So, I think that they should feel like they have to make these moves to address the roster and improve it to make it a more playoff comparable roster. So, there are four cap space moves that I think Miami could make or should make that could give them the cap space that is required to add a corner and a tight end. Two extensions and two releases. Jake Bailey, releasing him frees you up $1.9 million of cap. Ryan Stonehouse is your punter. Why wait? Get rid of Jake Bailey and save $2 million in cap space. Channing Tindle is not good. He’s been on this roster for three years now. He’s not going to make a difference in year four. He’s at best linebacker five. Save the $1.3 million by releasing him. That’s 3.2 right there just by Bailey and Tindle. That might be good enough to get you one of these corners or tight ends. But you could also extend Ma Fitzpatrick or Zack Cer. And if you do all four of those moves, you can create up to $20 million in space. If you did the max restructure in an extension with Ma Fitzpatrick, you can save about 11.3 million in cap space. If you extend Zack Steeler, you can create $5.8 million in cap space at the max. So those two combined create about 20 mil or 17 mil. The 3 mil from Bailey and Tindall gets you to 20. So you’d have just over 20, about 20.25 to 5 million in cap space which would give you the capability of signing a corner and Noah Fant but also having $10 million in space heading into the season to give you flexibility in a potential trade or another signing that needs to go down barring injuries during the regular season. And here’s my final word on today’s show. I am not that sold on extending Ma Fitzpatrick. He did have a pretty down season a year ago and his contract right now isn’t that bad to where you can get out of it relatively soon. So, not extending Minka is fine by me, but you have to extend Zack Cer. He deserves it anyway. He’s been your best defensive player over the past two seasons. He’s one of the most durable and dependable guys on your roster as well. He’s also one of your leaders and captains. Make him happy. Extend him. Create that 5.8 million cap space as well. You do that for Sealer. Then you release Ba Bailey and Tindall, excuse me. That alone gets you about 11.1 million in cap space, which would give you just enough money to sign probably maybe one or two of fan in a corner or at least one of them. So, you need to create cap space regardless. Extending Sealer, releasing Tindall and Bailey makes the most sense. Gets you above the double- digit threshold and then you could have either flexibility or go out and sign one of these guys that we’re talking about. Thank you for watching this episode of Dolphins Today. Hopefully the Dolphins do make a move at corner or at tight end. And when they do, we will have you covered with a video. Make sure you are subscribed. And like I said, let’s get to 71K on today’s show. [Music]

Noah Fant became an NFL Free Agent on July 20th after the Seahawks released Fant to create more NFL cap space. Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier should jump all over this and sign Noah Fant to the Dolphins roster. The Miami Dolphins depth chart, especially at tight end, is weak and Fant would be an instant upgrade since the Dolphins traded Jonnu Smith to the Steelers. Miami Dolphins Today host Nic Rohloff breaks down the top Dolphins rumors and Miami Dolphins news before Dolphins training camp! Miami only has $2.25 MM in cap space, and would need to be creative in order to sign Noah Fant in NFL Free Agency.

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Noah Fant was the 20th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, out of Iowa, by the Denver Broncos. Fant was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in the Russell Wilson trade before the 2022 NFL Season.

Noah Fant stats and highlights the past 4 seasons:
2024: 48 REC, 500 YDS, 1 TD, 10.4 AVG
2023: 32 REC, 414 YDS, 0 TD, 12.9 AVG
2022: 50 REC, 486 YDS, 4 TD, 9.7 AVG
2021: 68 REC, 670 YDS, 4 TD, 9.9 AVG

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– Should Miami sign Noah Fant? Type ‘Y’ for Yes or ‘N’ for No
– Which position should Miami prioritize? TE or CB

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Noah Fant target percentage in 2024:
Deep (20+): 3.2%
Medium (10-19): 17.7%
Short (0-9): 67.7%
Behind LOS: 11.3%

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Miami Dolphins coaching staff:
Head Coach: Mike McDaniel
Defensive Coordinator: Anthony Weaver
Special Teams Coach: Craig Aukerman
Offensive Coordinator: Frank Smith

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WATCH these Miami Dolphins YouTube videos for the latest news and rumors:
– Dolphins Targeting Kyle Pitts Trade? Signing Stephon Gilmore? Cutting 2025 NFL Draft Pick? Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM6CEyBrnVs
– Miami Dolphins Fans Got EXCITING News On Jaylen Waddle & Tua Tagovailoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FptzY1apH8
– The Miami Dolphins DODGED A Bullet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pat7dOIvlE

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